Obama selects Labor Board picks

President Barack Obama will nominate Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa to the National Labor Relations Board, POLITICO has learned.

Schiffer is the associate general counsel at the AFL-CIO; Hirozawa is the chief counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and would be nominated to the seat on the board that expires in 2014.

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As part of the deal to avoid the so-called nuclear option, Republicans agreed not to block the replacement nominees for Richard Griffin and Sharon Block, which were picked Tuesday in consultation with AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka.

The nominees will get a hearing next week, said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Harkin said the two will be approved before senators break for August recess.

“We now have a path forward to having a functioning NLRB for the remainder of Barack Obama’s term and even into the next presidency. So I’m very happy about that. so everything worked out,” Harkin said,

In return for removing Obama’s recess appointees to the board, Democrats won agreement to have a functioning NLRB through 2014, including a nominee for a slot opening on the board next year. In return, the GOP was able to scuttle the recess appointees that have been declared illegal by Republicans and whose constitutionality will come before the Supreme Court later this year.